Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance

Centre d’études sur l’apprentissage et la performance

Annual Report2o05 – 2O06

Acknowledgments

Compilers:

Evelyne Cypihot

Daniela Malisia

Rui Miau

Colleen Ryan

Cara Tanzini

Anne Wade and CSLP Faculty

Editor: Alison Redmond

Creative Director:

Catherine LeBel

Graphic Designers:

Hugo L. Casanova

Mi Zhou

Illustrator:

Marianne LeBel (11 yrs.)

Photographers:

Mi Zhou

Andrew Dobrowolskyj (photo of Emery Hyslop-Margison)

CSLP/CEAP Annual Report April 1, 2005–March 31, 2006

— Table of Contents —

Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Members. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Our Mission, Goals and Reec∏ons. . . . . . . . . . 9

Them∑

Accessibility and Students with Disabilities 14

Basic Processes 15

Early Literacy 16

Numeracy, Scientific Reasoning and Inquiry 17

Postsecondary Education 18

Research and Development on Information and

Communication Technology 19

Second Language Proficiency 20

Systematic Review and Meta analysis 21

Partnerships.&.Knowledge.Transfer. . . . . . . . .22

ü

2

Welcome to the 2005–2006 Annual Report of the Centre for the Study of

Learning and Performance/Centre d’études sur l’apprentissage et la performance

(CSLP/CEAP) This is our third and midterm year as a provincially recognized

and funded Centre of Excellence under the FQRSC Regroupements Stratégiques

program of infrastructure grants

Our midterm review occurred this year and the results of the evaluation and

site visit were extremely positive The review committee listed these as our

strengths:• Remarkable scientific quality of the centre

• Exceptional support from the host institution

• Excellent value added to the training of students in academic research

• Excellent management and leadership from the director and theme leaders

• Excellent diffusion of research results

• Remarkable knowledge transfer and collaboration with partners from

school milieu including colleges (CEGEPs)

• Remarkable quality of learning enhancement computer tools developed by the CSLP/

CEAP researchers and professional staff

• Excellent overall competitiveness

The review committee also gave us some suggestions for areas to improve: increasing member

involvement and cross-fertilization with our themes, greater involvement of students in

administrative decision-making, a greater number of post-docs, and increased activity and

involvement of the CSLP/CEAP internationally

We are thankful to the members, staff, students, collaborators and partners who

contribute to our successes and with whom we will work to build further on our strengths

Congratulations to everyone for a job well done – now let’s collaborate in meeting the

challenges ahead

There have been many scientific achievements by members and theme groups of the CSLP/

CEAP in the past year Even the Annual Report as a whole does not do justice to these

achievements including basic research, applied research, tool development and testing, and

knowledge transfer and partnerships

But I did want to exercise my prerogative as Centre director and single out one emerging

team for their success in obtaining funding from the FQRSC équipe programme:

congratulations to Laura Collins and her colleagues for their fantastic work This brings to

three the number of équipe grants CSLP/CEAP members have been awarded, a very solid

accomplishment which bodes well for the future

The other note I wanted to sound is about the growing movement towards knowledge

utilization, transfer, and evidence-based practice As a Centre, we are increasingly realizing

how important research becomes when the knowledge we generate has some place outside

the walls of academia Furthermore, we are learning that there is scholarship in both

knowledge generation and knowledge utilization There is truly the science of the applied

Active collaboration is an ongoing challenge Here at the CSLP/CEAP, we have increased

our commitment to seeing our partnerships succeed, with new and larger successes each

year We enjoy and profit immensely from working actively with those engaged in improving

learning and performance

A Message from the Director, Philip C. Abrami

O

� OBienvenue au Rapport Annuel 2005-2006 du Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance/Centre d’études sur l’apprentissage et la performance (CSLP/CEAP) Ceci est notre troisième année en tant que Centre d’excellence reconnu provincialement et subventionné dans le cadre du programme Regroupements Stratégiques de FQRSC Elle marque aussi la mi-parcours de cette subvention d’infrastructure

L’évaluation d’avancement à mi-parcours a eu lieu cette année et les résultats de cette évaluation et de la visite au Centre du comité étaient des plus positifs Le comité d’évaluation a signalé comme nos points forts :• la qualité scientifique remarquable du Centre• le rapport exceptionnel avec l’établissement de rattachement• l’excellente valeur ajoutée dans la formation en recherche universitaire des étudiants

• l’excellence de la gestion et la direction de la part du directeur et des responsables des volets thématiques

• la dissémination importante des résultats de recherche• la haute qualité du transfert des connaissances et de la collaboration avec des partenaires du

milieu scolaire et collégial (cégep)• la qualité remarquable des outils informatiques pour faciliter l’apprentissage conçus par les

chercheurs et le personnel professionnel du CSLP/CEAP• l’excellence de la compétitivité vue dans son ensemble

Le comité d’évaluation a aussi suggéré des domaines où nous pouvons apporter des améliorations : accroître l’implication des membres dans d’autres volets thématiques et la fécondation réciproque entre thèmes, augmenter l’implication des étudiants dans la prise de décisions administratives, accroître le nombre de boursiers de recherche postdoctorale, et faire progresser l’activité et l’implication du CSLP/CEAP sur le plan international

Nous remercions les membres, le personnel, les étudiants, les collaborateurs et les partenaires qui ont contribué à nos succès et avec qui nous travaillerons à bâtir sur nos forces Félicitations à tous pour ce beau travail Collaborons maintenant à relever les défis qui nous attendent

Les membres et les groupes thématiques du CSLP/CEAP peuvent se vanter de nombreuses réalisations scientifiques cette année Même le Rapport Annuel ne peut guère rendre justice à ces réalisations en recherche fondamentale, en recherche appliquée, en création et mise à l’essai d’outils, en transfert de connaissances, et en partenariats

Cependant, j’aimerais en ma capacité du directeur du Centre exercer ma prérogative pour mentionner tout particulièrement une équipe en émergence pour souligner sa réussite auprès du programme de subvention aux équipes de recherche de FQRSC Félicitations à Laura Collins et ses co-équipiers pour cet accomplissement exceptionnel Cet octroi élève à trois le nombre de subventions aux équipes de recherche reçues par les membres du CSLP/CEAP Tout compte fait, ce sont des bases solides qui annoncent un avenir prometteur

Une autre note que je voudrais faire sonner est celle de la tendance grandissante vers l’utilisation des connaissances, le transfert des connaissances, et les pratiques fondées sur des données probantes Comme Centre, nous nous rendons de plus en plus compte de combien la recherche devient importante quand les connaissances que nous produisons s’avèrent utiles en dehors du milieu universitaire Par ailleurs, nous découvrons que le savoir comprend et la génération des connaissances et l’utilisation des connaissances Voilà la science réellement appliquée

La collaboration active est un défi permanent Au CSLP/CEAP, notre engagement à faire réussir nos partenariats continue à grandir, avec de nouvelles et de plus belles réussites chaque année Nous tirons grandement profit et également plaisir de nos activités communes avec ceux qui sont impliqués dans l’amélioration de l’apprentissage et de la performance

Message du directeur, Philip C. Abrami

4OUn message du directeur adjoint, Norman Segalowitz

En 2005-2006, le CSLP/CEAP a encore tenu des liens très actifs avec des groupes de recherche à travers le Québec et le Canada, tels que Développement, intégration et évaluation des technologies de formation et d’apprentissage (DIVA), le Centre de transfert pour la réussite éducative du Québec (CTREQ), le projet SIAA/NANS, la International Campbell Collaboration, et le Réseau canadien de recherche sur la langue et l’alphabétisation (CLLRNET) Le CSLP/CEAP est fier de sa participation dans d’importants groupes de recherche au Québec DIVA est un regroupement de quatre grandes équipes venant de différents établissements au Québec qui oeuvrent dans le domaine des applications des technologies à l’instruction Cette année, puisque la subvention octroyée par Valorisation-Recherche Québec à DIVA prenait fin, le regroupement a publié un livre résumant les résultats des recherches effectuées par ses différentes équipes Le CTREQ (aussi subventionné par Valorisation-Recherche Québec) oeuvre à faciliter le transfert de la recherche sur l’instruction aux activités conçues spécifiquement pour améliorer la réussite et la persévérance scolaire au Québec Le CSLP/CEAP est membre fondateur du CTREQ et, à cause de sa place dans le milieu de recherche en éducation au Québec, nous sommes parmi ceux qui nomment les membres de son conseil d’administration Le projet SIAA/NANS, rattaché à l’Université de Montréal mais regroupant des chercheurs de partout au Québec, dont le financement s’élève à des millions de dollars, a pour but d’évaluer la réforme scolaire à travers la province En plus de ces engagements auprès des groupes situés au Québec, le CSLP/CEAP continue, en collaboration avec un groupe de travail composé de directeurs et de leurs représentants venant de tous les centres subventionnés par FQRSC, à défendre les intérêts du milieu des centres de recherche Le CSLP/CEAP continue aussi à travailler au développement d’un Réseau stratégique de connaissances subventionné par CRSHC, qui vise à encourager la création de liens entre chercheurs et utilisateurs sur le terrain et dont le thème est « Les langues en action » En plus de l’implication du CSLP/CEAP dans la International Campbell Collaboration, un groupe international qui établit des lignes directrices pour mener des études méthodiques dans les sciences sociales, le Centre participe activement dans la mise sur pied de CanKnow, un réseau connexe situé au Canada Finalement, de nombreux membres du CSLP/CEAP entretiennent à titre individuel des collaborations internationales à plusieurs niveaux, telles que la préparation de colloques pour des congrès internationaux ou la participation directe dans des projets conjoints de recherche Par ces liens nombreux et variés, le CSLP/CEAP reste un des centres de recherche en éducation le plus actif et le plus en vue au Québec et au Canada

A Message from the Associate Director,

Norman Segalowitz

In 2005–2006, the CSLP/CEAP continued to be very active with research groups across Québec and Canada, including Développement, intégration et évaluation des technologies de formation et d’apprentissage (DIVA), the Centre de transfert pour la réussite éducative du Québec (CTREQ), the SIAA/NANS project, the International Campbell Collaboration, and the Canadian Language and Literacy Network (CLLRNET)

The CSLP/CSLP/CEAP is proud of its involvement with important Québec-based research groups DIVA is a consortium of four large research teams from different Québec institutions that works on applications of technology to education, and this year, as DIVA’s funding from Valorisation-Recherche Québec drew to a close, the group published a volume summarizing the accomplishments of its many teams The CTREQ (also funded by Valorisation-Recherche Québec) is involved in facilitating the transfer of education-based research to activities directly engaged in improving school success and school retention in Québec The CSLP/CSLP/CEAP is a charter member of CTREQ and, because of our position within Québec’s educational research community, we are among those who nominate individuals for the Board of Directors The SIAA/NANS project, based at the Université de Montréal but involving researchers from around the province, involves a province-wide multi-million dollar study aimed at assessing school reform As well as our continued involvement with these various Québec-based groups, the CSLP/CEAP continues lobbying efforts with a working group of directors and their representatives from all FQRSC-funded research centres on behalf of the research centre community

The CSLP/CSLP/CEAP also continues to be involved in the development of an SSHRC-funded pan-Canadian Strategic Research Cluster network, aimed at promoting links between researchers and users in the field on the theme of “language performance in real time”

As well as the CSLP/CEAP’s continued involvement in the International Campbell Collaboration, an international group that establishes guidelines for conducting systematic reviews in the social sciences, the Centre is also active in establishing CanKnow, a related Canada-based network Finally, many individual members of the CSLP/CSLP/CEAP also maintain international collaborations at various levels, including the mounting of symposia at international conferences, and direct collaboration on joint research projects Through these many and varied external links, the CSLP/CSLP/CEAP remains one of the most visible and active educational research centres in Québec and Canada

5

Un message du directeur adjoint, Richard SchmidL’évolution du CSLP/CEAP comme Centre d’excellence de FQRSC a permis aux chercheurs de s’étendre à de nouveaux champs d’activité Ce qui a augmenté la participation chez les étudiants et chez les partenaires À présent, nous attendons impatiemment la réponse du Fonds canadien pour l’innovation à notre demande pour la création de nouvelles installations de recherche élargies, qui accroîtront nos activités de rayonnement

Nous offrons une gamme de possibilités de recherche et de développement en recherche fondamentale et appliquée, à travers plusieurs domaines et disciplines (par ex : technologie pédagogique, enseignement primaire, secondaire et postsecondaire, psychologie) Des projets en recherche fondamentale, par exemple, mettent en jeu des applications de processus cognitifs et l’incidence de ceux-ci sur la littératie précoce En collaboration avec des concepteurs de matériel pédagogique et de logiciels, nous développons des technologies qui favoriseront un enseignement efficace et aideront les élèves dans leur apprentissage Nos projets touchent tous les secteurs de la société : les écoles, l’industrie, le gouvernement et les organismes sans but lucratif Nous mettons un accent particulier sur des activités en collectivités où nous pouvons guider les étudiants à privilégier le transfert des connaissances selon les meilleures pratiques, et nous continuons à nous concentrer sur notre responsabilité de former la relève québécoise et canadienne de professeurs, chercheurs, enseignants, et autres intervenants

O

A Message from the Associate Director,

Richard Schmid

The evolution of the CSLP/CSLP/CEAP as an FQRSC

Centre of Excellence has enabled our researchers to

expand their activities in new directions This has

allowed for increased participation for students and

partners Currently, we anxiously await word from the

Canadian Funds for Innovation regarding the creation

of new and expanded research facilities, which would

greatly enhance our outreach efforts

We provide a variety of research and development

opportunities in basic and applied research, across

several fields and disciplines (e g educational

technology, elementary, secondary and post-secondary

education, psychology) For example, basic research

projects include applications of cognitive process

and their impact on early literacy Working with

instructional designers and software developers, we

work to develop technologies that will promote

effective instruction and help students learn Our

projects involve all sectors of society, including schools,

industry, government, and not-for-profit organizations

We place particular emphasis on mentoring students

in community activities that promote the transfer of

knowledge into best practices, and continue to focus

on our responsibility to train the next generation of

Québec and Canadian scholars and practitioners

Philip

Norman

Richard

6

Full MembersPhilip C. Abrami, Director & Professor, Education, Concordia UniversityRhonda Amsel , Professor, Psychology, McGill UniversityMark W. Aulls, Professor, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGill UniversityRobert M. Bernard, Professor, Education, Concordia UniversityEva Mary Bures, Assistant Professor, Education, Bishop’s UniversityWalcir Cardoso, Assistant Professor, Education, Concordia UniversitySaul Carliner, Assistant Professor, Education, Concordia UniversityTom Cobb, Associate Professor, Département de linguistique et de didactique des langues, Université du Québec à MontréalHenri Cohen, Professor, Centre de neuroscience de la cognition, Université du Québec à MontréalLaura Collins, Assistant Professor, Education, Concordia UniversityDenis Cousineau, Professeur, Département de psychologie, Université de MontréalSylvia d’Apollonia, Professor, Biology, Dawson CollegeRoberto de Almeida, Assistant Professor, Psychology, Concordia UniversityHelena Dedic, Professor, Physics, Vanier CollegeCatherine Fichten, Professor & Co-Director, Adaptech Research Network, Psychology, Dawson CollegeElizabeth Gatbonton, Associate Professor, Education, Concordia University

Rick Gurnsey, Associate Professor, Psychology, Concordia UniversityMarlise Horst, Assistant Professor, Education, Concordia UniversityEmery Hyslop-Margison, Assistant Professor, Education, Concordia UniversityRichard F. Koestner, Associate Professor, Psychology, McGill UniversityLynn McAlpine, Professor, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGill UniversityZohra Mimouni, Professor, Département des langues modernes, Collège MontmorencyHelena P. Osana, Assistant Professor, Education, Concordia UniversitySteven Rosenfield, Professor, Mathematics, Vanier CollegeRobert S. Savage, Assistant Professor, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGill UniversityRichard F. Schmid, Associate Director & Professor, Education, Concordia University Norman Segalowitz, Associate Director & Professor, Psychology, Concordia University Bruce M. Shore, Professor & Dean of students, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGill University Johannes Strobel , Assistant Professor, Education, Concordia University Pavel Trofimovich, Assistant Professor, Education, Concordia University Michael von Grünau, Professor, Psychology, Concordia University Cynthia B. Weston, Professor, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGill University

Joanna White, Associate Professor & Graduate Program Director, Education, Concordia University

CollaboratorsCheryl Amundsen, Associate Professor, Education, Simon Fraser UniversityBette Chambers, Director, Early Learning, Success for All FoundationNorman Coombs, CEO, Equal Access to Software & InformationCarl J. Cuneo, Professor, Sociology, McMaster UniversityChristina De Simone, Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology, University of OttawaChristina Dehler, Assistant Professor, Education, California State Polytechnic UniversityMary Ann Evans, Professor, Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network, Psychology, University of GuelphBarbara F. Freed, Professor, Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon UniversityTerry Gandell , Assistant Professor, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGill University

Deborah E. Giaschi, Associate Professor, UBC & Staff Scientist, Ophthalmology & Psychology, BC Children’s HospitalRichard Harris, Professor, Physics, McGill UniversityMichael J. Jacobson, Research Scientist, The Distributed Learning WorkshopGary Libben, Professor, Linguistics, University of AlbertaEva Libman, Director, Psychology, Jewish General HospitalYiping Lou, Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership, Research, and Counseling, Louisiana State UniversityNancy Madden, President & CEO, Success for All FoundationRenata Meuter, Coordinator Bachelor of Psychology & Post Graduate Diploma in Psychology, Faculty of Health, School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of TechnologyFiore Sicoly, Lecturer, Georgian CollegeLinda Siegel , Professor, Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network, UBC

Robert Slavin , Chairman, Success for All FoundationNina Spada, Professor, Modern Language Centre, Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, University of Toronto

AssociatesJennison Asuncion, Project Manager, Learning Solutions, BMO Financial Group Institute for LearningMaria Barile, Project Co-Director, Adaptech Research Network, Dawson CollegeElizabeth Charles, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of TechnologyPhilip Cohen, Adjunct Professor, Music, Concordia UniversityChristian Dagenais, Directeur de l’évaluation, CLIPP & Professeur Adjoint, Départment de psychologie, Université de MontréalLeslie Dickie, Professor, Physics, John Abbott CollegeClaude Frasson, Professor, Informatique et recherche opérationnelle, Université de MontréalBruno Geslain, Coordinator, Research and Professional Development, Dawson College

Alice Havel , Counselling & Coordinator, Disabilities Centre, Adaptech Research Network, Dawson CollegeMichel Janosz, Professor, École de psychoéducation, Université de MontréalShirley Jorgensen, Coordinator Institutional Research, Adaptech Research Network, Dawson CollegeCalvin Kalman, Professor, Physics, Concordia UniversityNathaniel Lasry, Professor, Physics, John Abbott CollegeRoy Lyster, Dean, Integrated Studies in Education, McGill UniversityRajesh Malik, Professor, Adaptech Research Network, Psychology, Dawson CollegePatsy Martin-Lightbown, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Education, Concordia UniversityGilbert Paquette, Directeur du Centre de recherche LORNET, Université du Québec à MontréalNatalie Phillips, Professor, Psychology, Concordia UniversitySamuel Pierre, Professor, Computer Engineering, École PolytechniqueJesús Vásquez-Abad, Directeur, Département de Didactique, Université du Québec à MontréalLaura Winer, Senior Educational Technologist, Office of the Deputy Provost and CIO, McGill University

StaffLindsay Bernath, Designer/Programmer, Concordia UniversityJennifer Chong, Designer/Programmer, Concordia UniversityEvelyne Cypihot, Grants Officer, Concordia University

O

The Design Team: (back) Vladimir Severgine, Jeong-Jea Hwang, Miao Song, Benoit Danis; (front) Mi Zhou, Catherine LeBel, Sébastien Rainville

CSLP Members

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Benoit Danis, Designer/Programmer, Concordia UniversityFaycal El Habbal , Technician, Education, Concordia UniversityMartin Fecteau, Translator, Concordia UniversityRandall Halter, Research Associate, Concordia UniversityGeoffrey Hipps, Literacy Coordinator, Concordia universityJeong-Jea Hwang, Designer/Programmer, Concordia UniversityAne Jorgensen, Instructional Designer, Concordia UniversityCatherine LeBel , Director, Design & Development, Concordia UniversityMonica Lopez, Instructional Design Coordinator, Concordia UniversitySébastien Rainville, Designer/Programmer, Concordia UniversityCatherine Rocheleau, Illustrator, Concordia UniversityColleen Ryan, Administrative and Library Assistant, Concordia UniversityVladimir Severgine, Designer/Programmer, Concordia UniversityDenise Silverstone, Research Coordinator, Concordia UniversityMiao Song, Designer/Programmer, Concordia UniversityThomas Stenzel , e-Portfolio Consultant, Concordia UniversityDavid Syncox, Research Associate, McGill UniversityAnne Wade, Manager/Information Specialist, Concordia UniversityDehua Zhang, Designer/Programmer, Concordia UniversityMi Zhou, Designer/Programmer, Concordia University

Post Doc. FellowsVeena Dwivedi, Psychology, Concordia University

Victor Frak, Psychology, Université du Québec à Montréal,Patrick Gaudreau, Psychology, McGill UniversityGuy Lacroix, Psychology, Concordia UniversityGenevieve Mageau, Psychology, McGill UniversityDeborah Radcliffe-Branch, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal

StudentsNancy Acemian, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaGermell Anderson, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaOfra Aslan, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaShawna Atkins, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillPierre Audy, Ph.D. student, Psychology, UdeMSouha Ayed, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaLeslie Bairstow, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaJanette Barrington, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaNaomi Barrett-Morissette, M.Ed. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillCatherine Beauchamp, Ph.D. student, Integrated Studies in Education, McGillMarie-Frédérique Beaupré, M.A. student, Psychology, UQAMFiona Benson, Ph.D. student, Integrated Studies in Education, McGillJacynthe Bergeron, Ph.D. student, Psychology, UQAMDenis Berthiaume, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGill

Edward Bethel , M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaCamelia Birlean, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillMichèle Bisson, M.A. student, McGillEvgueni Borokhovski, Ph.D. student, Psychology, ConcordiaLindsay A. Borovay, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillMarie-Eve Bouchard, Ph.D. student, Psychology, UQAMMalik Boudaoud, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaSamira Boufrahi, Ph.D. student, Education, UQAMJulie Brisson, B.A. student, Psychoéducation, UdeMOzlem Cankaya, M.A. student, McGillAngela Chan, Ph.D. student, Special Individualized Program, ConcordiaDominic Charbonneau, Ph.D. student, Psychology, UQAMShuhua Chen, M.Ed. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillSylvie Chouinard, Ph.D. student, Psychology, UQAMNoel Chung, Ph.D. student, Psychology, ConcordiaDawn Cleary, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaElisabeth Cohene, M.Ed. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillErin Comaskey, M.Ed. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillIoana Constantinescu, Ph.D. student, Psychology, ConcordiaCaroline Coté, M.A. student, Education, Concordia

Roger Cote, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaEowyn Crisfield Burr, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaLucy Cumyn, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillLouise Deault, M.A. student, Psychology, McGillStephanie DeBono, B.A. student, Education, ConcordiaClaudia De la Torre, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaAnne-Sophie Del Vecchio, Ph.D. student, Psychology, ConcordiaChantal Desrosiers, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaCynthia Dery, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaJulia Di Nardo, M.A. student, Psychology, ConcordiaGiuseppina D’Onofrio, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaJosée Douaire, M.A. student, Psychology, UQAMMichelle Downie, M.A. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillCatherine Durand, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaMayada Elsabbagh, Ph.D. student, Psychology, UQAM

Sonja Engmann, Ph.D. student, Psychology, UQAMClaudia Escartin , M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaJames Essex, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaCandace Farris, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaJin Feng, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaAlannah Fitgerald, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaKaty Fraser, M.Ed. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillVeronica Frediani, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaLisa R. French, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillAviva Fuchs, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaHugo Gagnon, M.A. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillGenevieve Gauthier, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillLoretta Gillis, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaAllison Gonsalves, Ph.D. student, Integrated Studies in Education, McGill

Jason Goodman, M.Ed. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillAngela Gordon, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaSimon Grenier, B.A. student, Psychology, UQAMTalya Grumberg, M.A. student, Psychology, ConcordiaAriane Guberman-Caron, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaJae Hoon Han, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillNancy Hebert, M.A. student, Education, UQAMSébastien Hélie, M.A. student, Psychology, UQAMDadong (Charles) Hou, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillYuan-Jin Hong, PhD student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillYanting Huang, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaSara Iatauro, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaEinat Idan, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaWendy Ing, M.A. student, Education, Concordia

Administrative Staff: (left to right) David Syncox, Anne Wade, Colleen Ryan, Evelyne Cypihot and Randall Halter

CSLP Members O

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Marta Iordanova, Ph.D. student, Psychology, ConcordiaJulie A. Irving, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillJesus Izquierdo, Ph.D. student, Integrated Studies in Education, McGillGuillaume W. Jabbour, B.A. student, Education, ConcordiaCheryll Jacek, B.A. student, Education, ConcordiaMarian Jazvac-Martek, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillDebra Jeremie, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaBingxiao Jiang, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaJenelle Job, B.A. student, Psychology, ConcordiaPaul John, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaGalina Kalinina, B.A. student, Education, ConcordiaEva Karchava, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaJenny Kawadoi, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaWendy Keller, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaMathieu Khoury, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaChristina Kouros, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaJulie Kwan, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaNootan Kumar, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaNathalie Lacaille, M.A. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillElaine Laflamme, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGill

Renee Landry, M.A. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillNathaniel Lasry, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillMarie-Claude Lavoie, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaChristine Lefebvre, Ph.D. student, Psychology, UQAMMaude Léonard, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaAnnick Levesque, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaWei Li, B.A. student, Education, ConcordiaLucie Libersan, M.A. student, Education, UQAMAntoinette Licursi, M.Ed. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillBrenda Linn, Ph.D. student, Educational Psychology and Reading, ConcordiaRaquel Llama, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaGretchen Lowerison, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaLarysa Lysenko, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaStuart MacMillan, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaJuliana Maia, M.A. student, Psychology, ConcordiaJudith A. Margison, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillClaude Martel , Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaJudy McBride, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillMark McMellan, B.A. student, Education, ConcordiaAnne Menard, Ph.D. student, Psychology, UQAM

Christi Milsom, B.A. student, Education, ConcordiaJulia Mitroi, B.A. student, Psychology, ConcordiaMauro Mittemperger, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaForouzan Mobayyen, Ph.D. student, Psychology, ConcordiaMariko A. Morin , Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillDominique Morisano, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillKelly Morris, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaBeth Moskovic, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillAnisa Muhammad, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaGabriella Najman, Ph.D. student, Special Populations, McGillSherry Newman, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaMai Nguyen, B.A. student, Psychology, UdeMIolie Nicolaidou, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaStefano Nudo, B.A. student, Education, ConcordiaIrene O’Brien , Ph.D., student, Psychology, UQAM

Christine Ouellet, Ph.D. student, Psychology, UQAMValentin Ovtcharov, M.A. student, Linguistique et didactique des langues, UQAMJennifer Pacheco, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaAfroditi Panagopoulos, Ph.D. student, Psychology, ConcordiaValerie Paterson, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaRita Pehlivanian, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaSara Penny, B.A. student, Education, ConcordiaAnna Peretiatkowicz, B.A. student, Education, ConcordiaIgor Perez, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaSharon Peters, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaMarie-Eve Pigeon, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaVanitha Pillay, M.Ed. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillNicole Pitsolantis, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaMichlèle Plomer, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaKristofer Pongratz, B.A. student, Education, ConcordiaStéphane Proulx, M.A. student, Psychology, UQAM

Adnan Qayyum, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaMarcello Quintierri, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaHaleh Raissadat, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaVanessa Rayner, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaKrista C. Redden, PhD student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillSophie Remillard, Ph.D. student, Psychology, UQAMAngela Ring, M.A. student, Psychology, ConcordiaClaude Romain, B.A. student, McGillCarlos Roncero, M.A. student, Psychology, ConcordiaSteve Rose, Ph.D. student, Humanities, ConcordiaTanis Saucier, B.A. student, Education, ConcordiaKatie S. Saunders, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillLisa-Marie Sauvé, M.A. student, Psychology, McGillAnthony Sciortino, B.A. student, Computer Science, ConcordiaFrancois X. Sezikeye, M.A. student, Psychology, Concordia

Rebecca Simon, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillSamia Sirhan, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaMelanie Sirois, Ph.D. student, Psychology, UQAMAnna Sokolovskya, B.A. student, Psychology, ConcordiaHyojin Song, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaAlla Sorokin , B.A. student, Psychology, ConcordiaMark Stephen, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaJosee St-Marseille, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaBo Sun, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaAnna Szpillberg, Ph.D. student, Special Individualized Program, ConcordiaMike Surkes, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaCassidy A. Syer, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillAnna Szpilberg, Ph.D. student, Special Individualized Program, ConcordiaRana Tamim, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaRobert Taylor, M.A. student, Education, ConcordiaJulie Timmermans, Ph.D. student, Educational & Counselling Psychology, McGillCaroline van de Velde, Ph.D. student, Psychology, ConcordiaAngela Vavassis, B.A. student, Psychology, ConcordiaGenny Villa, Ph.D. student, Education, ConcordiaNancy Wada, Ph.D. student, Psychology, Concordia

CSLP Members

Professional Staff: (left to right) Denise Silverstone, Monica Lopez, Geoffrey Hipps , Ane Jorgensen

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Our Mission and Goals

The CSLP/CEAP’s mission is to improve core skills in order to meet personal and employment challenges that Canadians face due to rapidly changing technology, and the globalization of knowledge creation/transfer and economic activity. We hope to develop strategies and tools to facilitate students’ and employees’ acquisition of general competencies that foster communication, literacy, numeracy, and employability skills for creative use in educational and workplace settings.

Our general goals are: to increase the theoretical and practical understanding of the factors that promote and hinder the learning and performance of complex skills; to provide training and support to educators and administrators; to provide the educational community with material and intellectual resources regarding new ideas in education; and to train students who have an interest in learning and performance and who are enrolled in graduate studies within the departments with which the centre and its members are affiliated.

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External FundingTotal number of grants and contracts awarded to full faculty members is 80 Estimated total value held by CSLP/CEAP members only, for the period 2005-2006 (i e one year of multi-year grants) is $4,000,000

Grants and Contracts: SSHRC (22); FQRSC (15); CCL (6); NSERC (5); PAREA (4); MELS (3); VRQ (2); US Department of Education (2); CAQC (2); Health Canada (2); Heritage Canada (2); IERI (2); The Center for Research on Language Brain and Mind (1); Tier II; CRC (1); CFI (1); UN Secretariat for the Convention of Biodiversity (1); INUKSHUK (1); Quebec Ministry of Education (1); ETSB (1); OPHQ (1); TESOL International Research Foundation (1); LILLY II GRANT (1); Industry Canada (1); Canada-European Community Program (1); American Psychological Foundation (1)

OScholarly ProductivityPublications

Journal articles & Manuscripts: 176Books/Chapters/Proceedings: 60Other: 22Total Publications: 258

Other Dissemination ActivitiesConference presentations: 215Training and Instruction: 22Technology-based tools and other transfer activities: 11Training of StudentsM A theses and internships: 70Ph D dissertations: 70Fellowships: 10Research Assistants: 50

Reflecting on the Past Year

This past year we have attempted to meet our goals by

conducting a variety of basic and applied research and

development projects and have enthusiastically pursued

the dissemination of our findings in a variety of forms

We actively published the results of our projects in

scholarly and practitioner periodicals, presented at

scholarly and practitioner conferences, and conducted

workshops in the field

Under Scholarly Productivity is the number of

publications, workshops and conferences presentations

by full members, professional staff and graduate

students The number of students supervised by full

members, fellowships received by centre members, and

students hired as research assistants is also included

Under External Funding is a summary of the grants

and contracts awarded to CSLP/CEAP Faculty (Full

members) and their value for the period 2005–2006

For an itemized list of grants, publications,

presentations, training, transfer and professional

activities, supervised students, fellowships and awards,

please consult the document CSLP/CEAP Annual

Report 2005–2006: Productivity Section located on

our website at: http://education.concordia.ca/cslp/CSLP-AnnualReport.php

Our Accomplishments

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Some Highlights from the Year

Dr Johannes Strobel is Assistant Professor

in the Dept of Education at Concordia

University His research centers two

questions: (1) How can we foster learning

– especially in ill-structured and complex

domains? He researches engineers and their

problem solving in everyday workplaces,

reasoning processes of historians, and

instructional design of teachers Through

qualitative, mixed-method, and design-

based research studies, he tries to describe

the richness of learning as socio-cognitive

processes and performance of identities

in authentic roles His UN environment

programme sponsored children’s web site on biodiversity

http://kids.biodiv.org and a generic problem-based

learning engine are examples of development in this

area; and (2) “Learning in the wild” How do people

learn, when they are not in any formal educational

environments – when they pursue a hobby, when they

engage with others, when they read the newspapers and

inform themselves The role of social computing tools,

like social bookmarking, blogging etc is a primary factor

in this research His FQRSC funded comparison between

blogging, epistemological beliefs, and conceptual change

‘in the wild’ and in schooling is an example in this area

With backgrounds in philosophy, religious studies, and

information science, he approaches these questions in a

multi-dimensional and interdisciplinary manner

New CSLP Faculty Members

Dr Emery Hyslop-Margison was recently awarded a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Education and funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation to help develop the Institute for Democratic Learning in Career Education (IDLCE) The IDLCE will bring a significantly enhanced profile to the Tier II Canada Research Chair research program of Dr Hyslop-Margison This increased profile will facilitate greater participation from business, government, scholars, graduate students and teachers interested in the areas of career education and democratic learning The IDLCE will also disseminate the practical outcomes of this research in the form of career education programs and e-learning tools among a wide range of private and public sector stakeholders

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Some Newsworthy Items

{15 .04 .2005}CSLP/CEAP member Lynn McAlpine (McGill University) received the 2005

SIGFTED McKeachie Career Achievement Award

{28 .06 .2005}The preliminary findings were published for ABRACADABRA: Evaluation of a

Balanced Text and Word-level Reading Intervention, by Robert Savage, Geoffrey

Hipps and Phil Abrami

{05 .07 .2005}The ETSB-CSLP Laptop Research Partnership SchoolNet Report: Preliminary study,

by Jennifer Sclater, Fiore Sicoly, Aline Grenier, Phil Abrami, and Anne Wade,

was released

{24 .10 .2005}It was announced that Robert M. Bernard was elected to the Editorial Board

of the Educational Technology Research and Development journal, a bi-monthly

publication of the Association for Educational Communications & Technology

{09 .01 .2006}An article (Sensitivity to prosodic structure in left- and right-hemisphere-damaged

individuals) by CSLP/CEAP post-doctoral research associate Veena Dwivedi

ranked #1 in the top 25 in the journal Brain and Language Another article

(Semantic priming in a first and second language: evidence from reaction time

variability and event-related brain potentials) by CSLP/CEAP members Natalie

Phillips, Norman Segalowitz, Irene O’Brien and Naomi Yamasaki ranked #13

out of the top 25 in the Journal of Neurolinguistics

{12 .01 .2006}Anne Wade’s article on the role of the information specialist in conducting

systematic reviews published in Evidence and Policy

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Looking AheadEach year CSLP/CEAP members meet at an annual retreat to reflect on the year’s activities in relation to the centre’s mission and goals This year the focus of the retreat was to reflect on strategies to encourage stronger collaboration amongst centre members In this regard, Associate Director, Norman Segalowitz presented the SAVOIR framework

As mentioned in the Director’s Message, the provincial funding agency FQRSC, which provides infrastructure funding to the centre, completed their midterm review and we were very pleased to receive such a tremendously positive evaluation Initiatives such as refinement of the SAVOIR framework, the expansion of our CSLP/CEAP Advisory Board to include international members, and the encouragement of student involvement will address their recommendations for continued improvement of our centre

“S” = Social Environment Intentions of others“A” = Agency Learner as agent Repetition of physical/cognitive action or action to change the environment “V” = Variability Aim of learning is to make the environment predictable Limiting variability is necessary for successful performance Predictability relates to affordances “O” = Organism (point of Origin of the SAVOIR cube) The learner—or organism—operates within this space “I” = Temporal Interrelationship The organism-plus-environment forms a complex This complex changes over time

“R” = Reciprocal Causation

SAVOIRThe SAVOIR framework was developed by Norman Segalowitz to provide a common language for researchers from different backgrounds to talk to each other It is a framework for thinking about complex learning and performance problems, such that the multidimensional character of human learning and performance is never overlooked We hope SAVOIR will allow for increased communication and collaboration across the CSLP/CEAP theme research groups – a goal we have emphasized a lot this past year – because we believe it will lead to more successful research, more successful outcomes in applications and transfer, and faster and easier sharing of expertise Moreover, the very process of developing SAVOIR through internal consultation within the CSLP/CEAP is itself fostering communication across theme areas

Philip

NormanRobert

Johannes

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Current estimates suggest that 10–11% of postsecondary students are affected by some form of disability (e.g. visual, hearing, neurological, mobility, psychiatric, learning or health related impairment) and the numbers are increasing in most colleges and universities The Accessibility and Students with Disabilities theme group focuses on the vital role that higher education and new computer and information technologies play in allowing individuals with disabilities to participate fully in the Canadian mainstream We examine obstacles and facilitators, determine good practices, and raise the issue of universal instructional design A large part of our undertaking is to widely communicate the fact that students with disabilities succeed in postsecondary education at the same rate as their non-disabled peers, that they can effectively use computers and the new information technologies, and that such technologies can create more equitable learning conditions We also believe that greater attention to accessibility in educational materials and practices will improve education for all learners, whether they have a disability or not Through the use of bilingual questionnaires, focus groups, structured interviews, and archival and qualitative methods, researchers in this theme develop appropriate testing instruments for collecting and analyzing user data They then disseminate the research findings to a community of end-users: educators, students with disabilities, disability service providers, policy-makers, faculty, and others The past year saw intensive research and progress on three main projects The first – a study funded by FQRSC and the Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport – explored the personal, college and community-based obstacles and facilitators that affect college success, and explored employment and post graduation activities of college graduates with and

without disabilities A second study has the team working on several projects about the accessibility of eLearning and on adaptive and assistive technologies for postsecondary learners with disabilities Participants in these investigations include members of the following postsecondary communities: students with disabilities, disability service providers, professors, eLearning specialists, and ePublishers In the third project, funded by Heritage Canada, members of the team are working within the context of the CulturAll Network (based at U of Toronto) to develop technologies to aid in the accessible delivery of bilingual cultural content The college and university focus of this theme offers clear collaborative connections with the Postsecondary Education theme To better fulfil its role as sensitizer for the research efforts of other theme groups, members of the Accessibility and Students with Disabilities theme have participated in CSLP/CEAP meetings, Research Fair activities, and retreats They have also presented at meetings of other themes, such as Second Language Proficiency Ensuring that CSLP/CEAP researchers are sensitive to the issues surrounding accessibility – the importance of representing accessibility issues in their research efforts, the abilities of learners with disabilities and the tools and accommodations that can assist them, and the importance of including participants with disabilities in their research, both as assistants and participants – continues to be a vital part of this theme’s mandate

Accessibility and Students with Disabilities

Members: Catherine Fichten (Theme Leader), Rhonda Amsel, Phil Abrami, Richard Schmid, Maria Barile, Jennison Asuncion, Alice Havel, Shirley Jorgensen, and Ra jesh Malik

“Greater attention to accessibility in educational materials and practices will improve education for all learners, whether they have a disability or not.”

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Members: Michael von Grünau (Theme Leader), Philip Abrami, Denis Cousineau, Roberto de Almeida,

Rick Gurnsey, Guy Lacroix, Zohra Mimouni, and Norman Segalowitz

The Basic Processes research theme uses the multidisciplinary approach of cognitive science to study such problems as how language is acquired, how various types of perceptual information are processed, and how tasks are learned and performed Specifically, we study brain mechanisms such as the low-level processes responsible for the recognition of attributes (e.g. motion, texture, or syntactic parsing), attentional and automatic processes in visual and linguistic tasks (e.g. visual search, reading, or second language learning) and processes involved in the learning and performing of complex tasks (e.g. concept formation, linguistic/visual interactions, and the achievement of superior performance) Our research also provides a basis for more applied research into the assessment, teaching and evaluation of cognitive tasks and abilities We believe our research stands to benefit the educational community as a whole by aiding in the development of tools and technologies that will help detect and address learning problems and disorders

Over the past several years, the Basic Processes theme group has conducted research related to a major project, originally funded by IERI, entitled

Development and evaluation of a technology-enhanced adaptation of the Success for All reading program Under the leadership of post-doctoral researcher Guy Lacroix, Michael von Grünau, Roberto de Almeida, Norman Segalowitz, Denis Cousineau, Rick Gurnsey, and their graduate students, have investigated the diagnostic and predictive abilities of cognitive and perceptual tests (naming fluency, motion coherence, and the attentional blink) in relation to the ability to learn to read and to read fluently Some new perceptual tests have recently been incorporated into the program, which should help us in determining the disputed relationship between these low-level tasks and development and fluency of reading Many other basic perceptual and cognitive processes were studied by the members of the theme group (perception of motion and locomotion, texture and luminance, and visual search and working memory, among others)

Having the individual members grouped together in the Basic Processes Team has provided us with the opportunity for fruitful collaboration Specifically, an ongoing collaboration between the psycholinguistics lab of de Almeida and the visual perception lab of von Grünau has taken shape, studying the interaction between visual information and the processing of linguistic representations (different verb classes, object presence or disappearance) Cousineau, Lacroix, and Segalowitz (and their graduate students) have explored connectionist models of

Basic Processes

categorization Segalowitz and Lacroix are working on the semantic attentional blink in bilinguals and on the underlying characteristics of the RAN task Segalowitz and Elizabeth Gatbonton collaborate on the development of language teaching skills Further collaborations exist with Natalie Phillips (Concordia University, Psychology), Philip Cohen (Concordia University, Leonardo Project), Helen Osana (Concordia University, Education), and Laura Collins (Concordia University, Education/TESL) Gurnsey and Cousineau are starting a collaboration on statistical representations of the visual search task For the future, we would like to work on increasing these types of collaborations, and especially on establishing more contacts and collaborations between our members and those of different themes

“We believe our research stands to benefit the educational community as a whole by aiding in the development of tools and technologies that will help detect and address learning problems and disorders.”

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International comparisons of literacy ability show that a worrying 20% of Canadians are unable to make basic inferences and retrieve appropriate information from text (Canadian Council on Learning, 2005) Research in Canada and across the world shows that early literacy is fundamental to school success: students who do not learn to read by grade three risk academic failure, and subsequently risk failure in high school and decreased employment opportunities Yet readily-available, scalable and evidence-based technology systems to support literacy simply do not exist Thus, the ongoing focus of the Early Literacy theme area is to develop software and tools to help as diverse a group of young children learn to read and write as possible across the whole of Canada The work of our theme is three-part: we make use of the best available evidence in the design of software, we apply prototypes in the field (iterative testing), and we then use the tools we develop as a platform for conducting further research into how young children learn to read, and for investigating instructional uses of technology and professional development materials Over 2005–2006, we made significant advances on two large-scale projects The ABRACADABRA project – a highly interactive, flexible, web-based literacy resource for the elementary classroom developed under the supervision of Geoff Hipps and Rob Savage – is an excellent example, having been significantly developed and expanded Several evaluations of the program in the past year (involving around 300 children in

kindergarten and Grade 1 across three Québec school boards) proved highly successful, and provided valuable feedback to guide further development of the tool In the coming year we intend to continue to re-design the interface and layout, and perform further evaluations of ABRACADABRA as a teaching tool This project has enjoyed funding to aid development and major field-testing from diverse sources: Industry Canada, IERI, Valorisation-Recherche Québec (VRQ), the Chawkers foundation, FQRSC, and Inukshuk among others

Our second major research effort, in collaboration with the Interagency Educational Research Initiative (IERI) and the Success For All Foundation, was the continuation of a five-year project: the Alphie’s Alley literacy tutoring software The past year witnessed formal experimentation with Alphie’s Alley in a host of North American schools to determine its impact on the reading achievement of young children Members were pleased to learn that high-implementation classes were approximately doubling the gains of existing Success For All programs Findings are being used to refine the software, and the fifth year of this project will see general scaling up for wider deployment and study in several hundred schools With funding from the U S Dept of Education, the team is currently developing a team-based version of Alphie’s Alley The beta version of Team Alphie will be piloted in some local and U S schools in the coming year

Members: Robert Savage (Theme Leader), Philip C. Abrami, Henri Cohen, Denis Cousineau, Roberto de Almeida, Rick Gurnsey, Helena Osana, Richard Schmid, Norman Segalowitz, and Michael von Grünau.

Coordinator: Geoffrey Hipps

For projects of this scale and scope, active collaboration at all stages is essential for drawing upon the diversity of perspectives, expertise, and skills We have enjoyed intense collaborations both among members and with our many partners in the field, including the Directors General, Directors of Pedagogical Services and the Information Technology departments, and ICT consultants from our partner school boards Moreover, we have found clear opportunities to work with other CSLP/CEAP themes, such as the Accessibility and Students with Disabilities, Second Language Proficiency, and Research and Development on ICT themes We look forward to more such collaborations in the future

Early Literacy

“The ongoing focus is to develop software and tools to help as diverse a group of young children learn to read and write as possible across the whole of Canada.”

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The Numeracy, Scientific Reasoning and Inquiry theme comprises two complementary areas of investigation: science and mathematics instruction in secondary and post-secondary schooling, and processes and conditions associated with inquiry-oriented learning in general Members of the team have been busy this year, analyzing data, and publishing and presenting findings both at home and internationally Submission of a final report signalled the completion of a five-year FQRSC Action Concertée Grant project, conducted by Steven Rosenfield, Helena Dedic, and Mark Aulls (along with others, including Leslie Dickie and Richard Koestner) Entitled Étude des Facteurs aptes à influencer la réussite et la rétention dans les programmes de science aux cégeps Anglophones, the project included eight empirical studies examining the ecology of math and science instruction in highschools and CEGEPs, from the perspective of both educators and students This project aimed to help professors, administrators and the Ministry of Education promote student attraction to, and perseverance towards, eventual careers in the sciences, engineering, or science education Bruce Shore, Calvin Kalman and Aulls submitted a final report for a three-year project, The interaction of inquiry instruction and learning: context and process As well, two qualitative case studies were undertaken to determine pre-service teacher perception of what

constitutes effective and ineffective instruction, both in universities (Aulls) and CEGEPs (Kimberly Wolfe) Each study produced new findings regarding the affective impact of teacher practices on student learning, and the way in which context alters student perception of the efficacy of teacher practices Aulls and Krista Redden submitted a review of qualitative research on self-regulated learning for inclusion in an AERA-sponsored publication, and Aulls and Shore completed two books with Erlbaum press, Inquiry in Education volumes I and II We also benefited from the contributions of students Redden analyzed the differential influence of how students are involved in large lecture halls and standard classrooms at different levels of academic learning (as defined by the new Bloom’s taxonomy of higher order learning objectives) Judy McBride successfully defended her PhD dissertation, How do I as a teacher-researcher contribute to the knowledge of teacher learning and practice in teacher-education as I explore my values through self-study? In the coming year, members of the team will further analyze the rich longitudinal data obtained over the last three years Nathanial Lasry, a recent addition to the team, is currently spearheading the

Members: Mark Aulls (Theme Leader), Helena Dedic, Sylvia d’Apollonia, Nathanial Lasry, Helena Osana, Steven Rosenfield, Bruce Shore, and Johannes Strobel.

Numeracy, Scientific Reasoning and Inquiry

development of a new line of research on FCI measures with another new member, Johannes Strobel (Research and Development on ICT theme), and Dedic, Dickie, Aulls, and Eric Mazur Sylvia d’Apollonia continues her study of the difficulty experienced by many biology students in constructing and manipulating verbal scientific models, working to develop technology-assisted interventions Rosenfield and Helena Osana continue to work on an evaluation of educational science texts We look forward to disseminating the results of our research for use by teachers and administrators in Québec through workshops devoted to teaching and the processes of engaging in inquiry in science, mathematics and social sciences

“…promote student attraction to, and perseverance towards, eventual careers in the sciences, engineering, or science education.”

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Academic success is a key element of individuals’ ability to contribute as successful citizens, and it consequently has a crucial impact on Québec’s economic growth and global competitiveness The goal of this theme’s research efforts is to better understand the broad range of factors involved in the creation of effective postsecondary learning environments, in order to foster and enhance academic success and reduce failure This goal requires looking at the relevant issues from a wide variety of perspectives, with ongoing consideration for the many facets of learning and teaching, and the tools available to support these processes To this end the Postsecondary Education group’s membership reflects a multidisciplinary approach to learning and draws on the insights and expertise of researchers in psychology, mathematics, the sciences, and education

A number of SSHRC-funded initiatives came to an end this year, notably The what and why of faculty development in higher education: A synthesis of the literature (Cheryl Amundsen, Phil Abrami, Lynn McAlpine, Cynthia Weston, Marie Krbavac, Amrit Mundy, and Marilyn Wilson) and How do professors explain their thinking when planning and teaching? (McAlpine & Weston) As well, Mark Aulls and Bruce Shore completed two books this year synthesizing and integrating the results of their decade-long program of research into inquiry Among the new

research proposals that are currently being developed are one that Aulls et al will be submitting an FQRSC Team Infrastructure grant this fall Steven Rosenfield et al and McAlpine et al will shortly be submitting full proposals for Action Concertée: Les perceptions des environnement scolaire et leur impact sur la réussite et la persévérance dans les programmes de mathématique, de la science et d’ingénierie and L’influence des pratiques d’acquisition de connaissances par discipline surl’achèvement du doctorat: une étude des domaines du génie et des sciences, respectively We also believe it is beneficial to network with other themes, in order to explore places of intersection in our thinking and research We benefit in this way both through our members’ concurrent membership in other themes and through our practice of meeting several times a year with members of the Numeracy, Scientific Reasoning, and Inquiry team to discuss draft papers This year, our team members were successful in receiving funding for several research programs that will start up this year, and they often include CSLP/CEAP members from other themes These new programs incorporate a range of disciplinary perspectives and levels of education

Postsecondary Education

Members: Lynn McAlpine (Theme Leader), Phil Abrami, Mark Aulls, Robert Bernard, Sylvia d’Apollonia, Helena Dedic, Steven Rosenfield, Richard Schmid, Cynthia Weston, and Laura Winer

“Academic success is a key element of individuals’ ability to contribute as successful citizens, and it consequently has a crucial impact on Québec’s economic growth and global competitiveness.”

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This theme deals with researching and developing the technologies that will improve student acquisition of the general competencies that foster communication, literacy, numeracy, creativity and inquiry skills in educational and workplace settings Our Design and Development team, under the direction of Catherine LeBel, works with CSLP/CEAP researchers to design innovative tools for the classroom Ongoing meta-analyses examine the broader purview of technology integration in blended learning and on-site teaching environments, a process that involves a large team of faculty (including Richard Schmid) and approximately 10 students (the latter group supervised by Evgueni Borokhovski, a doctoral student in Psychology) These meta-analyses have yielded a theoretical model that will be the subject of our 2007 AERA proposals entitled Beyond the Obvious in the “What Works in Distance Education” Question By April of 2007, we expect to present preliminary results for a series of meta-analyses of the methodological and substantive factors that distinguish different DE conditions We have also made strides in the development and implementation of e-portfolio, web-based, bilingual, process-oriented digital portfolio software for use in elementary and secondary schools This past year, in an attempt to increase our

understanding of the tool’s applicability, we supported an e-portfolio program for teachers in various research schools in six of the English school boards, a feat made possible through the collaborative efforts of our digital portfolio team, Beverley White (Director, LEARN-RECIT) and the provincial RECIT We also worked to design a suite of tools that better articulate e-portfolio’s key processes, in order to encourage more active, meaningful learning rather than mere surface-processing Led by Anne Wade, a team comprising Phil Abrami, Bev White, Lebel, Vladimir Severgine, Lindsay Bernath, Kelly Morris, Ane Jorgensen and Thomas Stenzel (RECIT, Riverside School Board) is working on a new version of the software, entitled ePEARL (Electronic Portfolio Encouraging Active Reflective Learning), due out at the end of the summer Funding received from the Canadian Council on Learning has enabled the research team of Abrami, Denise Silverstone, Iolie Nicolaidou, Wade, and Cher Jacek to collect data on teachers’ attitudes towards the use of e-portfolio and on an analysis of students’ portfolios Articles on our project have appeared in a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Learning Technology, as well as in a published collection of papers on the VRQ DIVA projects and in the edited book entitled Children’s Learning in a Digital World published by Blackwell Publishing,In the area of PedTech, Gretchen Lowerison, Schmid, Abrami, Rana Tamim and Nicolaidou continued to explore issues surrounding the techniques and resources that

Research and Development on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Members: Richard Schmid (Theme Leader), Phil Abrami, Robert Bernard, Saul Carliner, Johannes Strobel, Catherine LeBel, and Anne Wade

Coordinator: Denise Silverstone

complement student learning preferences and the role that computer technology plays in facilitating learning Lowerison is presently gathering data associated with her doctoral research, examining how publicly available tools such as Moodle and Wikis can be used to promote self-regulation in a business school setting

“…researching and developing the technologies that foster communication, literacy, numeracy, creativity and inquiry skills”

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Second language literacy is increasingly necessary as a result of rapid globalization and regional integration This is particularly true for the educational and professional communities of Québec, as they attempt to engage both the wider population and the world The goal of the Second Language Proficiency theme area is to find the best way to promote second language acquisition and performance In particular, we focus on facilitating second language learning at the micro-level of teaching and learning practices and the macro-level of institutional policy related to second language instruction We also aim to develop supportive instructional materials and testing instruments, for use in a variety of learning contexts This year has seen continued research and new initiatives: efficiency and learning in second language classrooms (Laura Collins et al ); time distribution in classroom teaching of a second language, linguistic models of second language phonology development, and social aspects of second language learning and fluency (Elizabeth Gatbonton and Pavel Trofimovich); on-line concordancing and instructional activities, and their role in vocabulary acquisition (Marlise Horst, Tom Cobb); dual immersion programs (Roy Lyster and Laura Collins); the cognitive underpinnings of second language oral fluency (Norman Segalowitz, Pavel Trofimovich, and Gatbonton); the impact of second language learning on first language proficiency (Joanna White); closing the gap between first and second language instruction in the area of grammar, vocabulary and discourse (White, Horst); phonological and sociolinguistic processes in second

language acquisition (Walcir Cordoso); and literacy issues among CEGEP students (Zohra Mimouni); among others

The umbrella provided by the CSLP/CEAP also affords group members a great opportunity to engage with researchers from other themes Currently, we collaborate with the Basic Processes theme – investigating literacy, perceptual, and cognitive issues in first language literacy and second language acquisition – as well as the Numeracy, Scientific Reasoning and Inquiry theme We also have a number of research partners at external academic institutions in western Canada, the U S , the U K , Spain, and Brazil, as well as at non-academic institutions (for example, the applied linguists in the theme group work regularly with the Tyndale-St-Georges Community Centre and SPEAQ) The newly established pan-Canadian SSHRC Cluster group (of which Segalowitz was a co-founder) will address language performance in Canada, drawing upon considerable existing linguistic expertise and resources to establish partnerships between professionals in the target

Members: Norman Segalowitz (Theme

Leader), Walcir Cardoso, Tom

Cobb, Laura Collins, Roberto de

Almeida, Elizabeth Gatbonton,

Marlise Horst, Joanna (London)

White, Roy Lyster, Zohra

Mimouni, and Pavel Trofimovich

Research Associate: Randall Halter

sectors and researchers with expertise in the language sciences, in order to provide practical, evidence-based solutions to problems of language performance in real-time communication Collectively, our activities contribute new knowledge to the field, making possible the transfer of knowledge and generating visibility for the theme’s researchers, as well as contributing trained highly-qualified personnel for second language research and instruction The coming year will see three primary trajectories for

development of the Second Language Proficiency theme area: theme-wide team research on efficiency and L2 classroom learning (Collins et al ), research on Perceptual and cognitive factors underlying the acquisition of reading in a first language and the acquisition of a second language (Segalowitz, Gatbonton), and a pan-

Canadian strategic research project on language performance in real time Finally, three members of this theme group are involved in research related to health care access for linguistic minorities, a project involving four universities in Montréal

Second Language Prociency

“Second language literacy is increasingly necessary as a result of rapid globalization and regional integration.”

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There is a tradition in the social sciences of periodically synthesizing the results of individual studies to promote the development of theory and to suggest to practitioners and policy makers how to make practical decisions about various questions We take the position that this is only useful when a systematic approach is used, by which we mean an approach that is objective, repeatable, transparent, systematic, comprehensive, and integrative A systematic review, then, involves developing a clearly formulated question that uses systematic and explicit methods to identify, select and critically appraise relevant research, and collect and analyze data from the studies that are included in the review

Employing statistical methods (meta-analysis) is a prime example of a systematic approach to analyzing and summarizing the results of studies The CSLP/CEAP has a long history of conducting and publishing meta-analyses in the area of Education A meta-analysis is a particular form of systematic review that represents the findings of studies in quantitative terms, usually in the form of an effect size (i.e. the standardized difference between group means) Other examples of the systematic approach include narrative reviews, qualitative reviews, vote counts, and meta-syntheses Over the past few years, members of this theme area have been involved in three levels of activity regarding systematic reviews and, more specifically, meta-analysis: producing reviews, developing methodologies, and training

This year, we have been involved in several major projects, and we have more in development We are working on developing methodologies for creating an Argument Catalogue, a systematic review that covers the literatures of print media outlets, practitioners, policy makers, primary researchers and reviewers, in order to examine how these perspectives are similar or different We recently produced an Argument Catalogue on the subject of e-learning for the Canadian Council on Learning in Vancouver, B C In addition, our work to produce a follow-up to 2004’s A methodological morass: How can we improve the quality of quantitative research in distance education? (Robert Bernard, Phil Abrami, Yiping Lou, and Evgueni Borokhovski) involves contrasting different instructional interventions within different distance education groups Our involvement in systematic review training activities includes conducting sessions at AERA, at the Campbell Collaboration’s Annual Colloquium, and for the CSLP/CEAP community at Concordia There are plans in the works for our involvement in training sessions at UCLA in the winter of 2007 Often our work is informed by collaboration with members of other themes An ongoing collaboration on a meta-analysis of instructional interventions affecting critical thinking skills and dispositions – between Abrami, Bernard, Anne Wade, Borokhovski, Mike Surkes, and Dai Zhang – yielded preliminary results that were accepted for presentation to the American Educational Research Association in San Francisco in April, 2006 A collaboration between Bernard, Abrami and Zhang that explored the psychometric structure of the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal was also accepted for presentation at the same event We have also just begun a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of media and technology use in Postsecondary education

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“A systematic approach is objective, repeatable, transparent, systematic, comprehensive, and integrative.”

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Members:

Robert Bernard (Theme leader), Phil

Abrami, Anne Wade, Richard Schmid

22OPartnerships

An important aim of the CSLP/CEAP is to serve as the intellectual and support centre for a multi-disciplinary group of researchers, collaborators, associates, and partners The CSLP/CEAP is uniquely advantaged by the scope of our network Existing partnerships include Québec-based research networks and bodies such as Adaptech Research Network; Association québécoise des étudiants ayant des incapacités au postsecondaire (AQEIPS); Association Québécoise Inter-universitaire des Conseillers aux Étudiants ayant des Besoins Spéciaux (AQICEBS); CRIRES; CTREQ; DIVA; NANS/SIAA; and newly emerging collaborations with the Faculty of Education at the Université de Montréal CSLP/CEAP researchers have also strengthened relationships with a variety of national research groups, such as: ATRC; CADE; LIFIA; LORNET; Alberta’s Supernet Alliance in Canada; and international groups: EIFEL; EdMedia; and the Success for All Foundation We are associated with two SSHRC-funded pan-Canadian Cluster groups entitled Language in real time/Les langues en action and are also members of the International Mental Lexicon Group and Disability-related policy and research cluster Our Québec-based partnerships include: the Ministry of Education, Sport & Recreation (Anglophone Services); the Leading English and Education Resource Network (LEARN); the LEARNing Communities-RECIT; Societé pour la promotion de l’enseignement de l’anglais (langue seconde) au Québec; Tyndale-St Georges Community Centre; and all of the English language school boards, along with some French school boards We also have active partnerships outside Québec with such organizations as: Apple Canada; Canadian Association of School Administrators; Canadian Language and Literacy Network; Campbell Collaboration; Canadian Association of Disability Service Providers in Post-secondary Education; Canadian Cochrane Collaboration; Canadian Council on Learning; Conference Board of Canada, EPPI Centre; Evidence Network; and the National Educational Association of Disabled Students

Partnerships & Knowledge Transfer

2� OTransfer Activities

In November 2005 members of the CSLP/CEAP participated in their fifth biennial Research and Technology Fair The Fair began with theme leaders presenting an overview of the research conducted within their theme area, and a summary of the goals and research questions they hoped to address in the coming year This event, attended by CSLP/CEAP members and partners, Concordia administrators, and the general public, helped to set the stage for the exhibits presented at the Fair Over 50 education-related research projects and demonstrations were exhibited In addition, teachers and students from one of our partner schools, John F Kennedy High School were on hand to display their technology-based classroom projects To view one minute video clips describing our various research projects please visit: http://education.concordia.ca/cslp/RA-ResearchFair.php

In addition to the CSLP/CEAP Advisory Board, all major CSLP/CEAP projects also draw upon pan-Canadian Steering Committees populated by the key stakeholders We communicate with our partners via meetings, in-service workshops, publications, and our website We are also implementing and evaluating ways to increase the scale and impact of our innovative educational tools and techniques in partnership with the community The Canadian Network for Knowledge Utilization (CanKnow), based at the CSLP/CEAP, is dedicated to collecting and disseminating evidence in the social sciences to inform and improve Canadian policy-making and practice This past year members of CanKnow completed a review on e-Learning conducted for the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL); see http://www.ccl-cca.ca/CCL/Reports/StateofTheFieldReview/?Language=EN This experience provided us with the opportunity to pilot a newly developed methodology called the Argument Catalogue and a dissemination document entitled the Knowledge Link

24O

For further information please visit our centre website at http://education.concordia.ca/cslp

• An Argument Catalogue represents a means for analysing and characterising documents from multiple sources, including the print media (a reflection of current public opinion), practitioners, policy makers, reviewers of research and primary researchers

• The Knowledge Link is a newsletter designed to highlight the significant findings of a specific research project, along with implications for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers

There is a growing worldwide movement to use research evidence in policy making and practice in domains such as health and social services, education and criminal justice There is a desire among stakeholders to increase the use of evidence in practice through the application of both primary research and systematic reviews of research We believe that by giving voice to the various constituencies that we are trying to influence in the form of something like an Argument Catalogue, we will increase the chance that debate – or at least critical conversation – will emerge as the gaps (or overlaps) between various perspectives are examined An important follow-up activity for us will be to evaluate the impact of our knowledge dissemination strategies, to learn about the conditions for successful transfer of the results of each type of review so that they have maximum effect in the field and on decision-making

Partnerships & Knowledge Transfer

For further information please visit

our centre website at

http://education.concordia.ca/cslp

The.end

LB-581 1400 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West Montréal, Québec H3G 1M8Telephone 514 848-2424, Loc. 2020Fax 514 848-4520http://education.concordia.ca/cslp/